Who is worthy?

It's an odd little story that comes from the Gospel of Luke and it asks many questions.  Here is where I want to start:  Who is worthy of Jesus?  Who is worthy of Jesus' life giving forgiveness?  Who is worthy of the transformation that comes from the love of Jesus?  [I know, that comes to 3 questions, but they are all really just versions of one another.]


She is a known sinner.  No one ever explains that because it seems to everyone who reads the story (I'm talking really knowledgeable biblical scholars here) that what she does to make her a 'sinner' is fairly obvious.  She is a woman who sells herself: she is her own commodity.  Sex for money.

Now I think it is important to point out that women who take this path  have few if any other options open to them.  They need money in order to survive.  There is no man: husband, son, even father, who will take her into their household and protect and provide for her.  She has few options for making the money she needs to survive.  You need to understand her cultural context before you go making assumptions.

She functions in a culture which values her for her fertility.  Without the ability to bear children, she has no value.  She may be able to give pleasure, but she is not valued as a person.  If she is lucky/blessed, she has given several children to a husband before she grows old.  If she is really blessed she has given her husband a son.  If God is looking favorably upon her, her husband has actual affection for her.  If all the stars align right, she will die before her husband so she isn't faced with the possibility of having no son who will include her in their family.  Daughters don't count.

So, on about 6 different counts, this anonymous woman has no value; she is a known sinner.

Is she worthy of Jesus' attention?  forgiveness?  love?  inclusion into his social circle?  By the standard rules of society, Jesus owes her nothing.  Nothing.  At. All.

Yet, there she is, touching !!!!! him in a gathering of important men (for who else would the Pharisee have invited to a dinner that had Jesus as a guest?)  She is making a regular spectacle of herself, crying and washing his feet and anointing him and kissing !!!! his feet.  Too much drama by half.

Then the story gets itself all twisted up.  She has shown great love because she has received great forgiveness.........that's what Jesus says.  But then Jesus says, "Your sins are forgiven.  Your faith has saved you."  So were her sins forgiven before she began this dinner outing or did she anticipate the forgiveness of sins or did she bring the ointment so that Jesus would forgive her?  What exactly is the sequence here?

What if I said the answer to all those questions is "Yes?"  She was forgiven before she arrived whether she had seen or heard Jesus or not.  She was forgiven as she anointed Jesus.  She was forgiven after she anointed Jesus.

Here's the key:  she was forgiven.  A child of God.  Worthy of Jesus' love, attention, and life giving forgiveness.  She was worthy: with or without the ointment and the tears and the uncertain Pharisee.  She was forgiven because Jesus was/ is in the forgiveness business.  She is forgiven because Jesus is forgiveness, and at some moment she knew this to be true.  It moved her to tears.  

I'm not surprised.

Growing spiritually: worship and devotion

She's the woman who anoints Jesus, to prepare him for his burial.

She purchases an alabaster jar of expensive perfumed ointment, and pours it onto Jesus, filling the room with the fragrance of her gift.

The men in the room become angry; perhaps because she embarrasses them with this intimate act played out in public. Perhaps because they were all wishing that they had thought of it first.

They all have a solution to this 'waste of good money'....and their reaction tells us they cannot see what this woman is doing as an act of worship and devotion.  Jesus commends her and promises that wherever this story is told it will be done in remembrance of her.  

 She never says anything.       We never learn her name.

We will need to put aside our notion of worship as a 'service' that we attend and embrace, instead, a notion of worship as action in order to see the potential for spiritual growth in this story.  Without words, and in a hostile environment (this was an all men's dinner) she simply acted: extravagantly, generously, with nothing held back.  Focused on the service she could do for her Lord, she acted and then she slips away from the story forever.

I've always wondered if Jesus could still smell the wonder of that ointment in the days ahead....when they arrested him and crucified him.  Could the fragrance that filled that room have given him the assurance (as slight as it may have been) of this one woman's devotion?  Did it help him remember the one who loved him when the whole world was busy crushing him?

How do we grow to be the one who knows how to honor her God and does so without regard for the hostile glares around her and the emptying of her purse?  How does emptying out that alabaster jar fill her with God?

Caught asking the wrong question

What kind of woman was she?

She had no place at the table.  Clearly she disregards the potential public embarrassment for herself and cares nothing for the ruffled feathers of the men in attendance.

 

She is singular in purpose; she never speaks, goes directly to Jesus and does what she has come to do.  She pours out herself; her tears; her anointing hands; even her money; she wept, bathed, dried, kissed, anointed. Something, sometime moved her.  It seems obvious.  Why would she have come and acted in such a way had she not encountered Jesus before?  She does all this for Jesus, not for herself; there is no indication of a transaction here, no quid pro quo. She takes no honor onto herself; none is offered; none is given.

 Of those in the room, we are certain that this woman has clarity of purpose and goal. She may also have a reputation; we assume that calling her a sinner means she is functioning outside the sexual boundaries of her day….but how would they know this?  Just by looking at her?  Could the men have been customers?  At the same time, don’t jump to sexual conclusions; there may also have been any other number of ritual and legal reasons to call her a sinner.

But whoever she is, she is clear about who Jesus is; the one who forgives; the one who has accepted her; who allows her inside – all the way to the table.

On the other hand we have The Pharisee who is male, apparently ‘not a sinner’, the host of the dinner, wealthy enough to invite Jesus to his table.  What does The Pharisee do?  Well, he invited; watched; and thought to himself:  ‘Well, who exactly invited her?’  and ‘Why doesn’t he say something?’

She snuck in; acted; poured out her feelings openly leaving The Pharisee to look a little cheap, a little gauche, perhaps a little snarky?

What exactly is the point of telling this story with all its drama?  Are we to feel guilty because we didn’t buy the ointment and you know, wash Jesus’ feet?  Are we to feel guilty because we like the Pharisee we try to act correctly according to social customs?  Which debtor are we, exactly, in the little parable?  Is it better to be the one for whom a small debt was forgiven? 

This is exactly where we get hung up today.  We are so busy critiquing the behavior of others, checking against some list of merits and acceptability that we miss the core action.  This is a story about forgiveness – and getting to know the one who forgives.

Who has the authority to forgive us: to give us a cosmic ‘do-over’ – to put the past behind us and help us live into the future in harmony with God’s purposes in the world?  Who?  Jesus; and this is no small thing this forgiveness that Jesus offers.

The Jesus' brand of forgiveness is life changing, emotional; often leads people to disregard social custom and everyone else to serve the one who forgives.  Being in the presence of that kind of authority, that kind of power is a little overwhelming, might take a while to wrap your head around it all.  Might lead you to pour yourself out for the other.

Notice:  in spite of how we react to these two characters, Jesus rejects neither of them.  First, he speaks out loud what the Pharisee has hidden in his heart.  Jesus needs to bring it forward into the light or it will settle in and fester there in his heart. This Pharisee sees himself as the one with a small debt to the master; nothing really to be concerned about. 

Jesus, however, offers the Pharisee forgiveness.  The same forgiveness given to the woman.  Apparently both of them could benefit from this forgiveness, and the relationship it would create with Jesus: the one who forgives and makes possible cosmic forgiveness; new beginnings; being born again.  Got it?

Yes?  then how will you live?    Where will these two go with this gift?  Who will they be?

Having already publicly proclaimed her devotion to Jesus, the woman seems a good bet for continuing her life devoted to Jesus. But, will it prove to be a flash in the pan?  No more than an emotional experience that will fade and the wondrous gift of a new beginning will fade as well?

And the Pharisee?  Could this story close with the sound of bells going off announcing he truly does get it, not just the value of the forgiveness being offered,  but the reality of who it is that sits before him and offers it to him? 

We talk about forgiveness all the time here in church.

We listen to the words of absolution granting us forgiveness.

We hear stories about Jesus forgiving others.

We are encouraged to make forgiveness the core value and action of our lives as people of faith.

But how has it changed us?  Where have our lives gone after receiving this awe inspiring gift?

Because either forgiveness changes you or you haven’t really understood what was at stake in the first place. Either it gives you a new beginning to live within that forgiveness; free to go where you are not invited; free to thank others; free to serve others; free to make a fool of yourself for Jesus, or you have no idea just how much you need this forgiveness that Jesus is offering.

And if you don’t understand forgiveness, you don’t understand Jesus or his mission in the world – or yours for that matter. 

Not certain you have been forgiven?  Need proof?  Look to your baptismal certificate. Your baptismal certificate is the official document that you have been forgiven. 

 

Either you believe that and live into it everyday or you quibble and wander around lost.  

So let me say once again,  Go, you are forgiven.  It’s a cosmic do-over.  A new beginning. You have been born again. 

What life will you live now?

Guess who showed up for dinner

A man, a woman and a guest of honor show up at the same dinner party.  He was the host; she wasn't invited and the honored guest was the most recent media celebrity.  She hadn't been invited for solid socially acceptable reasons.  Her behavior proved the host right.  The honored guest's behavior left the host wondering what he was thinking when he extended the invitation.

Really!  All that weeping and groveling! Washing the guest's feet with her tears; anointing them with oil.   Her demeanor and her behavior told the truth about who she was - even if no one ever got her name and in fact she left without speaking.  But this I can tell you- the host had his shorts in a knot!  She had the audacity to touch his guest of honor. And his very important guest permitted this outlandish behavior as if it was to be expected and then forgave her. [see Lk7.26ff]

What to do?  What to think? Just who was in charge here?

Jesus of course.  Jesus wasn't just some generic 'guest of honor' he was the one with the authority and power to forgive - to grant a cosmic 'do-over', to make possible a new beginning, a re-framing of how one lives life. Caught up in all the drama of a dinner party where no one follows the rules, Jesus is simply Jesus, the one who forgives. 

We talk about forgiveness all the time here in church.
    We listen to the words of absolution granting us forgiveness.
       We hear stories about Jesus forgiving others.
          We are called to make forgiveness the motto of our lives as people of faith.
But how has it changed us?  Where have our lives gone after receiving this awe inspiring gift?

Because either forgiveness changes you or you haven’t really understood what was at stake in the first place.   Either it gives you freedom to live within that forgiveness; free to go where you are not invited; free to thank others; free to serve others; free to make a fool of yourself for Jesus, or you have no idea just how much you need this forgiveness that Jesus is offering.

And if you don’t understand forgiveness, you don’t understand Jesus or his mission in the world – or yours for that matter. 

To her knees

She knelt down, poured a year's wages in the form of perfume over the dry and dusty feet of a man she believed was her Lord, her Savior, the Son of God.  I see it as an act of love, beyond logic or planning or accounting.

What has driven you to your knees lately?  Ever?
Please God, send us to our knees in love to another.